This invention relates to printing technology. More particularly, this invention is directed to a system and method for generating print data signals for a digital printer.
Generally, digital printers and bar codes are well known in the art. Bar codes are printed patterns of intermixed black bars and white spaces where the sequence of bars and spaces correspond to previously defined characters. The bar codes are read bar code scanner (reader) to derive the characters that they represent. Traditional one-dimensional bar codes may use the bar""s width to encode a product or account number. Two-dimensional bar codes, such as PDF417, MaxiCode and DataMatrix, are scanned horizontally and vertically and hold considerably more data. The use of bar codes in various industries has proliferated over the years with the result that bar codes are found almost everywhere. Bar codes provide operational advantages to many industries by automating the retrieval of information. Typically, information contained in bar codes may be retrieved more quickly and with fewer errors than with other techniques, such as human reading of printed words.
Because of these operational advantages, bar codes have been adapted for a diverse range of uses. For example, the retail store industry uses bar codes printed on tags, labels and tickets attached to merchandise for inventory tracking, pricing information and producing detailed customer receipts. Similarly, the grocery store industry uses bar codes printed directly on a product or a product""s packaging for the same purposes. These are examples of point-of-sale applications for bar codes. However, many other uses exist for bar codes which are outside of point-of-sale applications. An example is found in many manufacturing industries where bar codes are used internally for production control. Another example is in the health care industry where bar codes are used for patient identification and specimen tracking. Still another example is the United States Department of Defense (DOD) which requires all vendors to designate the contents of every package delivered to any United States military agency in a bar code label affixed to the package.
Another application where bar codes are beginning to be used is the postage metering industry. In some countries, such as the United States, the postal authorities have developed requirements (discussed in greater detail below) for postal indicia that require the use of bar codes. Generally, postage metering systems are well known in the art. Typically, the traditional mechanical and electronic postage meters have employed physical security and specialized inks to prevent fraud. The registers that maintain an accounting of postal funds have been located within a secure housing along with a dedicated printer. As a further measure, the dedicated printers have used fluorescent ink to provide an extra aid in the detection of an authentic postage meter indicium.
More recently, postal authorities have promulgated regulations that allow postage meter manufacturers to utilized digital printing technology (laser, ink jet, thermal transfer, etc.), either embedded as part of a mail handling system or as a general purpose office printer. As an example, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has enabled the decoupling of the postage meter and the printer and allowed the use of digital printers by establishing an Information-Based Indicia Program (IBIP). The IBIP is a distributed trusted system established by the USPS to retrofit and augment existing postage meters using new technology known as information-based indicia. The IBIP relies on digital signature techniques to produce for each mail piece an indicium whose origin cannot be repudiated. Thus, in contrast to traditional postage metering systems employing mechanical printing technology and physical security, the IBIP supports new .methods of securely applying postage to mail pieces. Generally, the IBIP requires printing a high-density two-dimensional (2D) bar code on a mail piece. The 2D bar code encodes various information associated with the mail piece and is subsequently signed with a digital signature.
The USPS has published detailed specifications for the IBIP. Generally, the IBIP is directed to two types of postage metering systems. The first type is referred to as a closed system and is defined in the INFORMATION BASED INDICIA PROGRAMxe2x80x94PERFORMANCE CRITERIA FOR INFORMATION-BASED INDICIA AND SECURITY ARCHITECTURE FOR CLOSED IBI POSTAGE METERINGS SYSTEMS, dated Jan. 12, 1999, (xe2x80x9cIBIP Closed System Specificationxe2x80x9d). Closed systems require a special purpose (dedicated) printer. The second type is referred to as an open system and is defined in the INFORMATION BASED INDICIA PROGRAMxe2x80x94PERFORMANCE CRITERIA FOR INFORMATION-BASED INDICIA AND SECURITY ARCHITECTURE FOR OPEN IBI POSTAGE EVIDENCING SYSTEMS, dated Feb. 23, 2000, (xe2x80x9cIBIP Open System Specificationxe2x80x9d). Open systems allow the user to print postage with an ordinary off the shelf commercial printer. Together, the IBIP Closed System Specification and the IBIP Open System Specification define the requirements for next generation postage metering systems. Thus, postage metering systems need to generate print data signals necessary to produce a postal indicium that, for IBIP compliant systems, includes a bar code. Accordingly, whether the postage metering system is of the closed or open type, interfacing with a plurality of digital printers to produce the bar code is essential.
A typical postal indicium is between 1.0 and 1.5 inches high and 2.75 and 3.5 inches wide. Thus, for a commonly available 600xc3x97600 density (dots per inch) printer a bit map including millions of bits must be generated in order to print the postal indicium. This bit map takes time to produce and transfer to the printer.
Therefore, there is a need for an effective and efficient print signal generation system and method. Furthermore, there is a need for a efficient print signal generation system and method that reduces the data processing requirements of the overall system while maintaining and/or improving upon its integrity.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a mail piece verification system that addresses some of the issues discussed above.
A print signal generation system generates print bit map data corresponding to a desired image where the print bit map data is utilized by a digital printing device to print the desired image. The system includes region parameter data, a first data generation system and a second data generation system in operative communication with the first data generation system. The region parameter data includes region data defining a partitioning of the desired image into a plurality of regions and expansion data. The first data generation system generates transaction data associated with the desired image and using the transaction data in combination with the region parameter data to generate print instruction data. The second data generation system receives the print instruction data from the first data generation system and expands the print instruction data based upon the region parameter data to generate the print bit map data.
Additionally, there are provided a method of generating print bit map data, a postage metering system and a method of generating postal indicium bit map data.
Various objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Moreover, the objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.